2022-12-09 10:00
Inanna and Su-kale-tuda (c. 1800 BCE) is a Mesopotamian myth dealing with rape and justice in ancient Sumer. The work has been interpreted as an astral myth or a figurative account of the ri… Read More
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2022-12-09 08:00
Jonathan Barth argues that England expanded its empire overseas throughout the 1600s in order to collect precious metals and wealth. Barths thesis is that colonists tolerated economic subord… Read More
2022-12-08 17:00
The Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) was the last major popular insurrection during the French Revolution (1789-1799). It was the final time that the sans-culottes played an imp… Read More
2022-12-08 10:00
As the Protestant Reformation emerged in France in the early 16th century, the city of Meaux became one of the first centers of controversy. Bishop Guillaume Brionnet II undertook a campaign… Read More
2022-12-07 17:00
The Instructions of Shuruppag (c. 2000 BCE) is the most famous work of the genre of Sumerian wisdom literature whose purpose was to encourage proper behavior in conformity with cultural valu… Read More
2022-12-07 09:58
Orichalcum ("mountain copper") or aurichalcum ("gold copper") was a metal used in coins during ancient times. Orichalcum was a golden-yellow coloured mixture consisting of both copper and zi… Read More
2022-12-06 22:00
European rhetoric and language usage have experienced many changes and modifications ever since ancient Greece and Roman orator Cicero's famous diction. Language, in history, has been used n… Read More
2022-12-06 17:00
Printed Christmas cards became popular in the Victorian period (1837-1901) thanks to a combination of cheaper printing techniques and even cheaper post, with the arrival of the Penny Black p… Read More
2022-12-06 10:00
The Thermidorian Reaction refers to the period of the French Revolution (1789-1799) between the fall of Maximilien Robespierre on 27-28 July 1794 and the establishment of the French Director… Read More
2022-12-06 08:00
As the title suggests, Caroline Elkins's book tells the history of what historians call the second British Empire - the imperial developments that took shape after the disastrous loss of the… Read More
2022-12-05 17:00
The Anglo-Nepalese War (aka Gurkha War, 1814-16) saw the British East India Company (EIC) lose several battles against Nepalese Gurkhas before finally securing victory in a hard-fought campa… Read More
2022-12-05 10:04
The Battle of Raismes was a major engagement in the Flanders Campaign of 1792-1795, during the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797). It saw a French Republican army under the command of Ge… Read More
2022-12-04 17:00
The Debate Between Sheep and Grain (c. 2000 BCE) is one of the best-known Sumerian literary debates in a genre that was popular entertainment by the late 3rd millennium BCE. In this piece, p… Read More
2022-12-02 17:00
The Social War (also called the Marsi War and well as the War of the Allies) of 91-87 BCE was the result of decades of contention between Rome and its Italian allies. Roman warfare relied he… Read More
2022-12-02 10:00
The Song of the Hoe is a Sumerian praise poem celebrating the hoe for its many uses and linking it to the creation of the world by the great god Enlil. As the economy of Mesopotamia was almo… Read More
2022-12-01 17:00
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas is a Trojan prince and the legendary founder of the Romans. He is the son of Anchises, a member of the Trojan royal family, and the goddess Aphrodite/Venus… Read More
2022-12-01 10:00
The three Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-1819) were fought between the Maratha Confederacy of India (aka the Mahrattas, 1674-1818) and the British East India Company (EIC). The Maratha Hindu princ… Read More
2022-11-30 17:00
Lullaby for a Son of Shulgi is a Sumerian cradlesong from the reign of Shulgi of Ur (2029-1982 BCE) written for one of his sons. The lullaby follows a standard form of encouraging sleep thro… Read More
2022-11-30 10:00
The fall of Maximilien Robespierre, or the Coup of 9 Thermidor, was a series of events that resulted in the arrests and executions of Robespierre and his allies on 27-28 July 1794. It signal… Read More
2022-11-29 17:00
The Four Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767-1799) were fought between the British East India Company (EIC) and the state of Mysore. Haidar Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, the "Tiger of Mysore", were relen… Read More
2022-11-29 10:00
The Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 defined France's relationship with the Catholic Church for over 100 years. The Organic Articles were added in 1802 and provided state recognition of the Refo… Read More
2022-11-29 08:00
The internet only changes how people process information instead of creating the idea of 'information.' As soon as humans developed writing around 3400 BCE, we found many ways to record info… Read More
2022-11-28 17:00
Tyrannies existed across the Greek world from the city-states to the islands of Sicily and Samos. Most historians date the Great Age of Greek Tyranny from 750 to 500 BCE, ending with the ous… Read More
2022-11-28 10:00
The Battle of Buxar (aka Bhaksar or Baksar) in Bihar, northeast India, on 22-23 October 1764 saw a British East India Company (EIC) army led by Hector Munro (1726-1805) gain victory against… Read More
2022-11-25 17:00
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a deistic cult established by Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) during the French Revolution (1789-1799). Its purpose was to replace Roman Catholicism as t… Read More
2022-11-25 10:00
The Delhi Durbar was a spectacular public event held in India to commemorate the accession of a new British monarch to the title Empress or Emperor of India. Three Delhi Durbars were held: 1… Read More
2022-11-24 17:00
In the French Revolution (1789-1799), the Committee of Public Safety (French: Comit De Salut Public) was a political body created to oversee the defense of the French Republic from foreign a… Read More
2022-11-24 10:00
In Greek mythology, Amphitrite is a goddess and the feminine personification of the sea. She is the wife of the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and lives with him in a golden palace beneath the sea… Read More
2022-11-23 22:00
In the book's Introduction, Edward Watts sets out his premise clearly. Roman politicians grew their power by targeting other communities of their society. As Watts points out, when trying to… Read More
2022-11-23 17:00
Bourges Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Stephen, is a Gothic cathedral located in Bourges, Le Cher, central France. Built from 1195 to 1245, the cathedral is one of the largest in Europe and c… Read More
2022-11-23 10:00
"I come to ask, not the gods, but legislatorsto erase from the code of the French the blood laws that command judicial murders" (Robespierre, 6). These impassioned words, spoken by Maximilie… Read More
2022-11-23 08:00
When I first saw the title of this book, I was excited to read it. Many studies on the Silk Road focus on its eastern end in China or its southern sections in the Middle East, but few schola… Read More
2022-11-22 22:00
The story of the Mughal Empire is a fascinating one. It has most of the historical elements that one might expect out of an empire: powerful male rulers, wars of succession, magnificent buil… Read More
2022-11-22 17:00
Local trade in ancient Mesopotamia began in the Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE), had developed into long-distance trade by the Uruk Period (c. 4100-2900 BCE), and was flourishing by the time… Read More
2022-11-22 10:00
The Tughlaq dynasty (also spelt Tughluq), ruled the Delhi sultanate from 1320 to 1413. Followed by the Khalji dynasty and preceded by the Sayyids, the Tughlaq dynasty formed an important per… Read More
2022-11-22 08:00
Although it was published in 1995, Richard R. John's Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse remains a must-read in the media history academia. This book practi… Read More
2022-11-21 17:00
The Death of Ur-Nammu is a Sumerian lament over the passing of the king Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE), founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who was killed in battle fighting the Gutians in 2030… Read More
2022-11-21 10:00
A sepoy was an Indian soldier in the armies of various states and European trading companies in the Indian subcontinent and then, from the second half of the 19th century, in the British Ind… Read More
2022-11-21 08:00
There are many books, both scholarly and popular, that discuss one of the most seminal events in English history: the Norman Conquest of 1066. Perspectives of the Anglo-Saxons, the French, t… Read More
2022-11-20 17:00
Edo Castle was a large castle built by the Tokugawa family in 17th-century Japan. It served as their seat of government for more than 260 years. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Edo beca… Read More
2022-11-20 10:00
In Greek mythology, Tyche is the goddess and personification of good luck, chance, and fortune. Tyche's popularity grew after the Classical period when many cities and officials across the G… Read More
2022-11-19 17:00
A Praise Poem of Shulgi (c. 2020-2000 BCE) is an ancient Sumerian document celebrating the famous run of 200 miles (321.8 km) in one day made by the king Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) to d… Read More
2022-11-18 17:00
The Hymn to Inanna (also known as The Great-Hearted Mistress) is a passionate devotional work by the poet and high priestess Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), the first author in the world know… Read More
2022-11-18 10:00
The Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 saw Robert Clive's East India Company army defeat a larger force of the Nawab of Bengal. Victory brought the Company new wealth and marked the beginning… Read More
2022-11-18 08:00
Every culture, religion, and community has its narrative of how this world originated. This narrative tells the people in that community why our landscapes look the way they are, why we have… Read More
2022-11-17 17:00
Fortifications of one kind or another had been used in Japan since ancient times, but in the period from 1576 until 1639, a new and distinctive style of castle was constructed. Rather than b… Read More
2022-11-16 17:00
A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe is a Sumerian composition relating a dialogue between an elder scribe and a young graduate from his school. The piece is dated to the Old Babylonian P… Read More
2022-11-16 10:00
The autumn of 1793 saw the Jacobins consolidate their authority in France as the Reign of Terror intensified and the Jacobins' defeated rivals were executed by guillotine. Yet the dominant J… Read More
2022-11-15 17:00
'God' is the common word for the identity of a higher being in the universe beyond our world, the creator of all known existence, and who rules in conjunction with lower gradients of divinit… Read More
2022-11-15 10:00
The cascading geothermal pink and white terraces of Aotearoa New Zealand were often referred to internationally and within New Zealand as the eighth wonder of the world. They were a famous t… Read More
2022-11-15 07:03
In 2015, Cambridge University Press published a seven-volume series titled "The Cambridge World History." The series aimed to offer a comprehensive account of a variety of cultures and commu… Read More
2022-11-14 17:00
The Indigo Revolt (aka Indigo Riots or Blue Mutiny) of 1859-60 in Bengal, India, involved indigo growers going on strike in protest at working conditions and pay. The subsequent violence was… Read More
2022-11-14 10:00
During the 21st century BCE, an era known as the Ur III period in Mesopotamia, many records of court hearings were drawn up in Umma, a city in what is now southern Iraq. One court record rel… Read More
2022-11-14 08:29
Over the last 20 years, there has been quite a boom in the publication of books about the Silk Road. The Silk Road would more accurately be referred to as the plural "Silk Roads," since it w… Read More
2022-11-13 17:00
The Hymn to Nisaba (c. 3rd millennium BCE) is a poem praising Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing and accounts who also served as scribe of the gods. The poem is officially dedicated to… Read More
2022-11-11 17:00
The Hymn to Ninkasi is at once a song of praise to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer, and an ancient recipe for brewing. Written down in c. 1800 BCE, the hymn is no doubt much older as e… Read More
2022-11-11 10:00
Pausanius (l. 110-180 CE) was a geographer and historian who traveled extensively, taking notes on points of interest, then wrote on them in guide books which could be used by tourists visit… Read More
2022-11-10 17:00
Psychological intimidation in military conflict has been an art of war since ancient times. Employing misinformation, feigned movements, subtle messaging, and overt display of aggression, it… Read More
2022-11-10 10:00
Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) was a Japanese poet and novelist who played a leading role in creating the so-called floating world (ukiyo-zoshi) genre of popular literature in the 17th century. H… Read More
2022-11-09 17:00
The Revolt of Lyon against the rule of the National Convention was a counter-revolutionary rebellion that played a role in both the Federalist Revolts and the Reign of Terror during the peri… Read More
2022-11-09 10:00
In this interview, World History Encyclopedia sits down with author and Assyriologist Amanda H. Podany to learn all about her new book Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancie… Read More
2022-11-09 07:17
Kylee-Anne Hingston, Assistant Professor of English at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon, Canada, uses a conversational approach and gentle writing to show how literary forms create and d… Read More
2022-11-08 22:30
In the book's Introduction, Craig Benjamin writes that, between the 2nd century BCE and the mid-3rd century CE, the Silk Roads linked together many cultures and communities throughout Afro-E… Read More
2022-11-08 17:00
Circe (also spelt Kirk) is a powerful sorceress and goddess in Greek mythology with an exceptional talent for mixing drugs. She was the daughter of the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis… Read More
2022-11-08 10:00
Ghosts in ancient Mesopotamia were understood as a reality of life just as they were in other civilizations of antiquity. Although the cultures of the various Mesopotamian civilizations diff… Read More
2022-11-07 19:30
A popular perception both in and out of academia is this: a few millennia ago, agriculture let hunter-gatherers settle down and form permanent societies and governments, which provided bette… Read More
2022-11-07 17:00
Lycurgus is considered the semi-mythical founder of classical Sparta and responsible for all of the city-states laws as well as its military and political institutions. He became better know… Read More
2022-11-07 10:00
Herodotus section of his Histories on burial in ancient Egypt (Book II.85-90) is an accurate description of Egyptian mummification but he purposefully omits the spiritual significance of emb… Read More
2022-11-07 08:28
The trial and execution of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), formerly the queen of France, was among the opening events of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution (1789-1799). Accused o… Read More
2022-11-07 07:29
Although this is a wonderful read for anyone having a deep infatuation with Japanese history, it mostly appeals to a scholar or a reader who is somewhat familiar with the topic. This, howeve… Read More
2022-11-06 17:00
When the first edition of The American West: A New Interpretive History, penned by Professor Robert V. Hine (1921 - 2015) and Professor John Mack Faragher, was published in 2000, it was an i… Read More
2022-11-05 10:00
Herodotus narrative on Lydia takes up almost one half of Book I of his Histories and the section dealing with King Croesus is among the best-known and often anthologized. The last section, i… Read More
2022-11-04 17:00
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) was a Japanese playwright who wrote for both the puppet theatre and kabuki. He is regarded as Japans greatest dramatist. Apart from their aesthetic appeal, h… Read More
2022-11-04 10:00
Boreas is the god of the violent North Wind in Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Astraeus and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and brother to Zephyrus (the West Wind) and Notus (the S… Read More
2022-11-03 17:00
The Battle of Thymbra (547 BCE) was the decisive engagement between Cyrus II (the Great, r. c. 550-530 BCE) of Persia and Croesus (r. 560-546 BCE), King of Lydia. The Persian victory ended t… Read More
2022-11-03 10:00
Melito of Sardis (d. c. 180 CE) was a bishop in the city of Sardis (near modern-day Sart, Turkey) who was regarded as one of the greatest Christian thinkers, writers, and apologists of his t… Read More
2022-11-03 06:49
Before he passed away in 2020, David Ringrose was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego. He was an expert on the history of Spain while also having an inte… Read More
2022-11-02 17:00
The 1905 Law of Separation of Church and State was enacted as the climax of decades of conflict between monarchists and anticlerical Republicans who viewed Christianity as a permanent obstac… Read More
2022-11-02 10:00
The Drownings at Nantes were a series of mass killings that took place in Nantes, France from November 1793 to February 1794 during the Reign of Terror. Overseen by Jean-Baptiste Carrier, th… Read More
2022-11-02 06:23
Paul Varley, who passed away in 2015, was a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University for many years before coming to the University of Hawaii. He specialized in the Kamakura and… Read More
2022-11-01 17:00
Calliope (also spelt Kalliope) is the Muse of epic poetry and heroic song in Greek mythology. She is considered the leader of the Muses and the most honoured of them all. She is often repres… Read More
2022-11-01 10:00
The Reign of Terror, or simply the Terror (la Terreur), was a climactic period of state-sanctioned violence during the French Revolution (1789-99), which saw the public executions and mass k… Read More
2022-10-31 17:00
It was not only the Mughal emperors that left an indelible mark in the history of the Indian subcontinent but also the queens and princesses. The latter's contributions to art, architecture… Read More
2022-10-31 10:00
The Indian Princely states (aka Native States or Princely India) were those states in the Indian subcontinent the British did not conquer but which were typically bound by treaty first to th… Read More
2022-10-30 09:00
This is a volume in the New Oxford World History series. The aim of the series is to provide an account of world history that is broader than the old approach that tends to focus only on Eur… Read More
2022-10-29 16:00
This is a volume in the New Oxford World History series. According to the Editors Preface, the aim of this series is to "offer readers an informed, up-to-date and lively history of the world… Read More
2022-10-29 09:00
The Meiji Restoration was a political event that took place in Japan in 1868. In it, the Tokugawa family, a warrior clan that had ruled Japan for more than 260 years, was overthrown by a gro… Read More
2022-10-28 16:00
The federalist revolts were a series of rebellions that erupted in several parts of France in the summer of 1793, in response to the concentration of power in Paris during the French Revolut… Read More
2022-10-28 09:00
Muqarnas is a three-dimensional architectural decorative element that flourished in its most complete form mainly during the Islamic period and is most pervasively used in domes and semi-dom… Read More
2022-10-28 06:55
The Story of Tutankhamun by egyptologist Garry J. Shaw is a brilliantly written new biography of the boy king, spanning from his birth and early life under his father Akhenatens new religiou… Read More
2022-10-27 16:00
The Greek historian Herodotus provides an accurate description of the devotion of the ancient Egyptians to cats in Book II of his Histories, but this passage is often cited out of context. C… Read More
2022-10-26 18:48
Behind the Scientific Revolution was a revolution in mindset and perspective. During the Middle Ages, the search for new knowledge in Europe was constrained by a theocratic society. The Rena… Read More
2022-10-26 16:00
The French Republican calendar, also known as the French Revolutionary calendar, was created during the French Revolution (1789-1799) in an attempt to build a new society separate from the v… Read More
2022-10-26 09:00
The British East India Company (1600-1874) was the largest and most successful private enterprise ever created. All-powerful wherever it colonised, the EIC's use of its own private army and… Read More
2022-10-26 06:18
Animal husbandry is commonly defined as a branch of agriculture dealing with the domestication, breeding, and rearing of animals for various purposes including labor (as in the case of large… Read More
2022-10-25 16:00
In Greek mythology, Cronus (also spelt Kronos) is a Titan and the youngest son of Uranus (Heaven/Sky) and Gaia (Earth). He dethroned Uranus and became the world's first king, ruling over his… Read More
2022-10-25 09:00
Pontius Pilate was the fifth magistrate to serve in the Roman province of Judea, created in 6 CE by Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BCE to 14 CE). His term of office was during the subsequent… Read More
2022-10-25 07:05
This is a paperback edition of a book that was first published as a hardback in 2019. The author, Constantine Nomikos Vaporis, is a professor of history at Maryland University and has publis… Read More
2022-10-24 16:00
Charlotte Corday (1768-1793) played a prominent role in the French Revolution (1789-1799) when she assassinated radical activist Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub on 13 July 1793. Despite her a… Read More
2022-10-24 09:00
Join World History Encyclopedia as they sit down with Dr. Bob Brier to chat all about his new book Tutankhamun and the Tomb That Changed the World, published by Oxford University Press. [… Read More
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